Powell and Cieslewicz argued that changing the age would stop younger kids from getting cigarettes from their 19- and 20-year-old friends.

The bill would have gone into effect on July 1, 2018.

"This brings home the point that this is not a punitive measure to punish people in your generation who already smoke. This is a preventative measure to help people in my generation just think twice before making that fatal decision," Cieslewicz said of the proposed two-year implementation delay.

The bill had a projected $2 million per year in lost revenue to the state.

Josh Daniels from the Libertas Institute said the Legislature should not criminalize adult behavior.

"We keep changing the age of when adults begin to be adults," Daniels said.

Daniels said Libertas supports smoker education because "when people know smoking's bad, they'll make the choice not to smoke."

Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, said that while there are some rights that should be granted to everyone, when society has to take on the consequences of those rights, society needs to limit the consequences.

"This is a cost shifting. That's all this is. People make their decisions and dump their millions and millions and millions of dollars of bad choices onto other people who didn't make bad choices and are still working so that they can now pay for the people who made dumb decisions," Hutchings said.

"If there was any potential upside to smoking, then obviously this would be a different conversation. But there isn't," he added.